WASHINGTON -- In an effort to win over religious voters, U.S. Democrats are changing the way they talk about abortion and birth control, the Los Angeles Times said Thursday.

House Democrats last week backed the Reducing the Need for Abortions Initiative, a move seen by some as an attempt to embrace measures long sought by anti-abortion activists, the newspaper said.

While one goal of the new, multimillion-dollar program is to prevent unwanted pregnancies, the initiative would also provide prenatal and parenting guidance, healthcare and counseling to young pregnant women.

It would also encourage them to consider adoption instead of abortion.

Those who back the initiative hope it will appeal to voters who don't want to criminalize every abortion, but who are disturbed that 1.3 million terminations a year are performed in the United States.

With solid bipartisan support, the House passed the initiative, the newspaper said.

A separate measure, which is still pending, calls for the creation of government-funded maternity and day-care centers on college campuses, so pregnant students won't be made to feel their only options are to have an abortion or quit school.